It is known that grippers are used in the course of semiconductor fabrication, for instance for handling wafers. The term “handling” is to be understood here as meaning any applied mechanical action, whether by gripping, advancing or merely holding or fixing. The term “gripper” is to be understood hereafter as meaning any device with which such handling can be carried out; a “gripper” is consequently to be understood as meaning any kind of “handling device”.
With the handling methods that are known today in the area of semiconductor fabrication, it is problematic that the gripping can cause particle soiling or contamination to occur. In order to come to solve this problem of contamination, dedicated installations are used, if materials such as, for example, Cu or high-k materials are used in wafer processing. Such dedicated installations greatly restrict the use or the capacities of the installations used and increase the cost for the semiconductor products produced. Contamination-free handling, or at least handling involving less contamination, of the wafers in the chambers or in the installations involved in semiconductor manufacture would allow utilization and flexibility to be greatly increased, and it could even be possible to do away with expensive clean-room area, since it is possible, depending on the application, when there is a lower risk of contamination to dispense with installations, and consequently no longer need space for these installations.